TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Before he took office, Donald Trump promised to roll back the reach of the federal government, saying that he would end the ‘regulation industry’ on the first day of his presidency. The effect has been immediate and dramatic: According to data compiled by POLITICO, significant federal regulation since Trump’s inauguration has slowed to an almost total halt.
From Inauguration Day until the end of May, just 15 regulations were approved by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), the White House department that reviews important new federal rules. That’s by far the fewest among comparable periods since recordkeeping began in the 1990s: Ninety-three rules were approved during the same period in Barack Obama’s administration, and 114 under George W. Bush.
The pace of minor rules has also slowed down, though not as dramatically: The Trump administration published 1,005 regulations in the Federal Register from Inauguration Day until the end of May, still fewer than the Obama and Bush administrations but not as extreme a drop. Most of those are small tweaks to requirements and procedures. Under the Trump administration, the government has adjusted the drawbridge schedule of the Atlantic Beach Bridge and designated an airspace near a ranch in Montana. But it hasn’t done much else.
The near-total freeze in regulations is likely to keep GOP supporters happy, converting on a long-held conservative dream of a government that stays out of the way. ‘It’s a reason to celebrate,’ said Stephen Moore, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation who informally advised Trump during his campaign.”
-Danny Vinik, “Under Trump, regulation slows to a crawl,” Politico, June 7, 2017 05:06am